So there's this thousand-year-old tree in Encino, and it's enormous, and it's a source of great local pride -- the way enormous trees can be -- and the city government's done quite a bit to protect it -- supports, wires, gates, just about everything you can do to a tree and still build a city around it.

But in the past several years the tree's gotten sick, and it's weakened to the point that a recent storm upended it onto Ventura Boulevard.

The next day, I'm watching the news and they're interviewing people who have crowded around the tree to watch a work crew clear it away.

"Oh, it's so sad," says one misty-eyed woman into the camera. "It's like going to the funeral of a friend."